A Stand Up Guy
by kandyshipper
Summary: He hated Dan more and more with each passing day, she was so scared and this was his fault.


Keith Scott, all of 21 stood at the window of the nursery and stared at the squirming bundle of pale blue blankets. The standard plastic hospital crib didn't yet have a name tag stuck to it. A boy, a baby boy, his nephew, his nephew who would never have a father, his son of a bitch brother was long gone, Dan's aspirations of sporting superstardom had driven him away from Tree Hill, away from the woman and child he claimed to love, only Keith wasn't deluded enough to believe that Dan was coming back, only Keith knew the truth, that within two months of leaving in search of bigger and better things he had found a new girlfriend, Deb, gotten her pregnant, left Karen, the mother of the squirming baby boy alone.  
  
Keith didn't have the heart to tell Karen Dan wasn't coming back, the last nine months had been stressful on her, Dan had chosen a career over staying in Tree Hill with her, her parents had practically disowned her, Karen who didn't have a lot to start with was totally alone in the world, working two jobs while pregnant at 17 to make ends meet, Keith felt the overwhelming need to protect her. She had fascinated him from the moment they met three years before, she was intelligent, fiercely independent; beautiful and loving, why she had loved, why she continues to love his asshole of a brother is a mystery to him.  
  
Keith had stood by her, this whole time, since Dan had left, it was him who held her as she sobbed the night Dan had told her he was choosing a future in Basketball over her and their unborn child, it was him who held her hand at that doctors appointment when she first saw her son on the sonogram monitor, heard the baby's heart beat. As her pregnancy had progressed and her financial situation became more desperate, it was him who stood by her, offered her a room in his modest apartment, actually he had insisted that she take it, he couldn't bare the thought of her been alone.  
  
At night he sat with her, his television was usually on but neither of them were really watching, massaged her aching feet, played with strands of her long curly hair, deep brown and silky soft, placed his hand on her ever expanding belly and felt his nephew move inside her, hated Dan for leaving her. He would lay awake for hours and listen to her quietly sobbing in the room next door, she rarely ever slept. Sometimes she would come into his room and climb under the covers, whispering to him all her deepest fears, while he held her and stroked her back.  
  
He hated Dan more and more with each passing day, she was so scared and this was his fault. Her single deepest fear was that her child would grow up without a father. That she needed Dan at her side to be a good mother, Keith promised her over and over that he would stand beside her, that he would be there for her always. Truth was he was falling head over heels in love with this amazing woman with the dark brown curls framing her pale face and the steely grey eyes that literally sparkled on the rare occasions that she smiled, this woman who was carrying his brother's child.  
  
Two nights ago she had woken him at 4am, her back was aching and she couldn't sleep, he flipped the covers back and she climbed in, he moved his hands instinctively to just the right spot on her lower back and massaged her knotted muscles, she ran her hand over her now huge stomach and whispered to Keith that the had the perfect name for the baby who the were both sure was a boy, Lucas she had said, Lucas Daniel Scott. Keith tried to hide his disgust at the mention of his brother's name, he didn't have time to argue that Dan didn't deserve to share his name with Karen's child, her moans of relief as Keith's hands pressed into her lower back turned into a gasp followed by a groan of pain as her belly tightened underneath her hand.  
  
The next hours had passed in a blur, labor was hard on her, he still isn't entirely sure she didn't break his hand, the only moment he remember clearly is when the little boy was finally born and took his first breath, his screaming and Karen's tears of pure joy.  
  
Karen had never looked more beautiful, with her hair plastered against her forehead; she was sweaty and red, tears of joy streaming down her face, in that moment Keith had acknowledged for the first time aloud that he loved her. 


End file.
